Restored Classic Western The Grey Fox Gallops to the Aid of Indie Theatres Nationwide

By Thom Ernst

In 1982, the late Phillip Borsos released his directorial debut, The Grey Fox. The film didn’t change the landscape of Canadian cinema, but it was a welcome break for those who were still using Hollywood as the benchmark for what a good movie looks like, and yet wanted something more substantial than Smokey and the Bandit II.

Borsos’s film is often described as a revisionist western, and rightfully so, to the point that it breaks free from genre specifics such as gunfights, saloon brawls, and evil cattle barons. But what makes it so watchable—and just as watchable nearing 40 years later—are the traits it has in common with the traditional western: Stagecoach hold-ups, train robberies, and a sweetheart of an anti-hero played by the late Richard Farnsworth.

The Grey Fox—which streams April 22 as part of National Canadian Film Day; additional details below— won seven out of its 13 Canadian Film Award nominations (then called Genies). Awards went to Best Picture (Peter O’Brian), Best Screenplay (John Hunter), Best Director (Phillip Borsos), Best Actress in a Supporting Role (Jackie Burrows) and Best Foreign Actor (Richard Farnsworth).

The film’s emphasis is on the later years of the real-life stagecoach robber, Bill Miner, a gentleman bandit hell-bent for legend and folk songs. Indeed, Miner had already been memorialized several times in song by the time The Grey Fox introduced him to movie audiences. Entire essays have been dedicated to the songs about Bill Miner. And there’s not a bluegrass musician worth their weight in banjo pics who doesn’t have “The Ballad of Old Bill Miner” on their playlist.

Miner was an outlaw who refused to engage in deadly gunplay (although he did carry a gun) and he had a reputation for being cordial, even during hold-ups. And though Miner managed to outwit the law on several occasions, he was eventually arrested and served 33 years in San Quentin.

Borso, working from Hunter’s screenplay, whittles Miner’s life down to those later years following San Quentin, and his time spent hiding in a British Columbia mining town. It is in the mining town that Miner reinvents himself as an upstanding citizen. He even finds romance with photographer Katherine (Kate) Flynn (Burrows).

Farnsworth, a career stuntman for 30 years before becoming a character actor, was not a star when he took on the role of Miner, and yet his face graces the film’s publicity poster with the gentle confidence of a maturing matinee idol.

“Richard Farnsworth owns the character Bill Miner,” says Toronto-based filmmaker, Ron Mann (Comic Book Confidential, Grass, Altman, Carmine Street Guitars).

Thanks to the efforts of Mann, The Grey Fox is getting something of a revival. Mann, who also owns Canada’s most aptly named distribution company, Films We Like, is providing a Virtual Cinema where you can stream The Grey Fox from your favourite independent theatre. Follow this link for instructions. This is a unique opportunity to see a restored version of The Grey Fox.

“Many Canadian films are unavailable in HD formats,” explains Mann, “So I began to restore and re-release them. Our U.S. partner Kino-Lorber restores classic films as well and I was floored when offered The Grey Fox. You would think a Canadian company would be on it. I thought it would be a perfect fit for Canadian Film Day while at the same time help out struggling independent theatres.”

Viewing a restored version of The Grey Fox coincides with National Canadian Film Day on April 22, an event that rallies movie venues across the country to dedicate their screens in a one-day celebration of Canadian Cinema. (Though the film is available to steam for an additional week). This year, as with every event designed to bring people together, COVID-19 has forced NCFD to adjust the festivities to an online experience.

Mann, as an industry player wearing two hats, gets hit twice by COVID-19: once as a filmmaker and again as a distributor. Travel restrictions have forced delays on the production of a new film, and a few of the company’s planned theatrical releases have been moved to the fall. But if Mann is at all deterred by this, he is distracting himself by focusing instead on the effect COVID-19 has on independent cinemas.

“My immediate feeling was how can I help? How can I support cinema workers and independent movie theatres?” says Mann, “That led to our first fundraising campaign donating rental fees from our films on Apple iTunes.”

For now, as necessity demands, Mann seems happy to contribute to the experience of seeing movies online, but his affections for a return to the theatrical experience has not diminished.

“(It’s) the way a film was intended to be seen—on a big screen with an audience,” says Mann, “Losing indie theatres means losing a sacred space and an alternative venue for mainstream Hollywood films.”

Mann is donating part of the proceeds raised from The Grey Fox to help independent Canadian theatres who’ve had to close their doors due to the COVID-19. A virtual ticket is $6.99 Canadian with 50 percent of proceeds going directly to the participating theatre.

These include the Revue Cinema (Toronto), Cinema Du Parc (Montreal), the Cinematheque (Vancouver), Sudbury Indie Cinema, the Roxy Theatre (Saskatoon), City Cinema (Charlottetown), and Capitol 6 (Victoria).